They Do Protest Too Much, Methinks

From Professor Michael Curtis, at the Commentator, "Anti-Trump rallies: They do protest too much, methinks":

The endless protests against Trump's victory can be seen as an exercise in free speech, but they must also be seen less kindly as undemocratic and indeed reactionary in their refusal to accept the validity of the democratic election result. Communist East Germany offers a poetic lesson

The ongoing protests, now in their ninth day, against the election of Donald Trump as US President can be seen in benign fashion as democracy in action, illustrations of the exercise of the right of free speech.

Some of the protestors may be sincere, open minded critics of what they perceive are Trump's policies and intentions. They do not deny the validity of his election, nor seek to disqualify it.

But the protests must also be seen less kindly as undemocratic and indeed reactionary in their refusal to accept the validity of the democratic election result.

The United States today has nothing in common with the Communist regime in East Germany in the 1950s. Nevertheless, it is well to remember the bitter remark of the German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht after the failure of the uprising of June 17, 1953 in East Germany against poor economic  wage and working conditions, an uprising  that was put down brutally by Soviet troops.

In his poem The Solution, critical of the brutality, Brecht ironically wrote it was easier for the Communist government to maintain control by dissolving  the people and electing another.

The present day U.S protestors , whether choreographed or not or organized by groups said to be sponsored by billionaire George Soros, in their refusal to accept the will of the people want to dissolve the American people and demand both the reversal of the election result and changes in the Constitution.

Based on the fact that Hillary Clinton, defeated in the vote for the Electoral College but obtaining a slim majority in the overall  popular vote, the protestors call  for the Electoral College to be abolished.

They appear ignorant that 2016 is not unique. Five times before in American history, a presidential candidate has been elected by winning a majority in the Electoral College but not the popular vote in the country.

Nevertheless, the protestors argue for the Electors on December 19, 2016 to ignore the votes of their states and vote for Hillary Clinton.

Protests by American citizens have been part of political theatre in American politics for some time but it is surprising that some of the present actors seem unknowingly to be playing the end of Shakespeare's King Lear.

The present day protestors overplay their role in viewing  the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President as "the weight of this sad time."

No supporter of Trump has ever claimed that he is, like Abraham Lincoln or Oliver Cromwell, the instrument of divine purpose.

Some protestors, whether from the Democratic Party, believers in identity politics, African-Americans, Latinos, Environmentalists, and LGBT, genuinely differ from President-Elect Trump on many policy issues...

Keep reading.

'Hamilton' Cast Boos Mike Pence

I'm sure Vice-President Elect Pence handled it with class.

Leftists, of course, have no class, and rank-and-file Democrats aren't pleased. Hard-left culture warriors are going to guarantee a second Trump term in office.

"We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us" https://t.co/ZQVEkoyWNq

— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 19, 2016

What happened to @mike_pence at Hamilton last night has resonated already out here on Main Street. Regular Democrats I interviewed appalled

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) November 19, 2016

Message from @HamiltonMusical /Broadway to paying conservative customers: Fuck you.
We'll see how that works out!

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) November 19, 2016

Obama Claims Trump's Election Wasn't Repudiation of His Ideological Vision (VIDEO)

Sure, go ahead and delude yourself Mr. President.

The fact is, November 8th saw the most beautiful ideological "shellacking" ever, heh.

At LAT, "Obama: Trump's election wasn't necessarily a rejection of my worldview":

President Obama acknowledged Tuesday that voters may have elected Donald Trump in part out of “natural desires for change,” but he batted down the idea that American voters gave an “outright rejection of my worldview.”

Hours after arriving in Greece to begin his final foreign tour as president, Obama tried to explain the American election, allowing elliptically for the first time that Trump’s election might have been a repudiation of his own presidency.

Presidential elections, Obama said, can turn on personalities as well as campaigns. Sometimes there are “natural desires for change when you have an incumbent who’s been there for eight years,” Obama said.

Still, “a pretty healthy majority of the American people agree” with his vision, Obama said, even though they did not elect Democrat Hillary Clinton on her promise to continue it.

“Sometimes people just feel as if we want to try something to see if we can shake things up, and that, I suspect, was a significant phenomenon,” Obama said.

Defending his record, Obama said key elements of his economic agenda for eight years — raising wages, investing in infrastructure and education — were directed at addressing the kind of anxiety that Trump successfully tapped into throughout his campaign.

"The problem was, I couldn't convince a Republican Congress to pass a lot of them," he said. "Having said that, people seem to think I did a pretty good job. And so there is this mismatch between frustration and anger."

Reacting to Trump’s stunning election upset for the second time in less than a day, this time on foreign soil, Obama drew a distinction between Trump’s victory and the so-called Brexit vote in Britain this summer, but also reflected on how nationalist sentiment that is threatening European unity might inhibit America’s own success...

More.

Thanks to Odie's Facebook Friends

Thanks to the hilarious graphics, at Woodsterman's, "Libtardia . . . A Place?"

Rash of Anti-American Outbursts from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Has Jolted U.S. Allies in Asia

Remember when the international community was supposed to fall in love with America again, after that dastardly Bush administration left office and everything would be rainbows and unicorns?

Yeah, good times, heh.

At WSJ, "Rodrigo Duterte’s Policy Shifts Confound U.S. Allies."

Obama Dissed on the Tarmac in China (VIDEO)

I love this story!

At Liberty Unyielding, "Obama dissed at G20: Denied red carpet arrival; delegation shouted at, harassed."

Here's the damage control, from Margaret Brennan, at CBS This Morning:



BONUS: From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "POSEUR STRIKES POSE: Obama gives Putin his best death stare: Tense moment the world’s two most powerful men squared up at the G20 summit in China."

Donald Trump Calls Out Obama as the 'Founder of ISIS'

I can relate, heh.

Hopefully Trump will keep up the consistent and totally accurate messaging, lol.

On message! #DonaldTrump claims Obama 'founded ISIS' and #CrookedHillary was co-founder. https://t.co/HD7snnD5J7 #TrumpNation #MAGA

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 11, 2016

I like Trump's consistent message discipline of late. #TrumpTrain #VoteTrump #TrumpNation #MAGA #DonaldTrump https://t.co/pc6V2L1BLO

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 11, 2016

'By Any Means'

This shit's prolly on O's iPhone.

ScHoolboy Q, agitatin':

You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can smoke that kill, you can push that dope
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can steer that wheel, hit the gas and go
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my...

I make a scene around me, hit the corner, Heaven, Hell
I come from pimpin', bangin', baby momma rockin' yayo
Was always Grandma's baby, Moms always kept in veil
I swear my cousin want me bangin', settin'

Nigga fuck all that, tryna go my road
I can take you back nigga, 'round '04
You can do clown dance, I'ma rob that store
You can paint your face, I'ma kick down doors
I'ma shoot my gun, I'ma free my locc
I'ma sell her tongue, I'ma tan that coke
I'ma dark my lungs, I'ma heal my soul
I'ma stack my bread, I'ma cop that boat
I'ma get them M's, I'ma whip that ghost

You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can smoke that kill, you can push that dope
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can steer that wheel, hit the gas and go
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my...

I make a scene around me, hit the corner, Heaven, Hell
I come from pimpin', bangin', baby momma rockin' yayo

50 Crip, contraband for chips, sold all kinda shit
You know we on, turned that white to stone, just don't call my phone
From scrub to boss, shit my necklace gloss, plus my Bentley cost
You poppin' pills, shit we sellin' pills, pussy sell in heels
Her booty fat, fuck her gluteus max, I'm still that groovy cat
Off 51st, yeah we pushin' work, all my pots is burnt
My section turnt, see my soda rise, dimes be super sized
Say yes to dope, cop that Enz and oh

You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can smoke that kill, you can push that dope
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can steer that wheel, hit the gas and go
Get yours, get yours, get yours by any means
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe

I make a scene around me, hit the corner, Heaven, Hell
I come from pimpin', bangin', baby momma rockin' yayo

You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my hoe
You can fuck my bitch, you can have my....

Ramadan Terror: Paris Knife Jihadist Broadcast Cop-Murder Live on Facebook (VIDEO)

Grisly.

At the Telegraph UK, "Paris attack: Cop-killer broadcast murder live on Facebook, saying he was answering Isil's call for lone wolf attacks during Ramadan":

A suspected Islamist who stabbed to death a police commander and his wife in France claimed he was following Isil’s call for lone wolf attacks during Ramadan, in a video posted online after the killing.

Larossi Abballa, a 25-year-old known to French security services, pledged allegiance to the leader of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in a 13-minute live broadcast on his Facebook account before warning that Euro 2016 would become a “graveyard”.

Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, an Isil spokesman, last month released an audio recording in which he told followers in Europe and the US to rise up and carry out attacks in its name during the holy month.

The attacker, who went to jail in 2013 for helping Islamist militants go to Pakistan and had been monitored by security services, repeatedly knifed the 42-year-old commander, named locally as Jean-Baptiste Salvaing, in the stomach late on Monday.

He then barricaded himself inside the house in Magnanville, a suburb some 40 miles west of Paris, taking the policeman's partner and three-year-old son hostage. His partner, 36, an administrative police official, was found dead in the house with knife wounds to her neck.

The boy was unharmed but in a state of shock, officials said. He was taken to a children's hospital.

They found three phones and three knives, including one covered in blood on the table.

In his nearby car, they found a Koran, a white djellaba, and two books - one called "genuine belief" and another "explanation of the three foundations".

The video, posted on his Facebook account as police surrounded the couple’s house, reportedly showed the suspect next to his victims, according to French radio station RFI.

The couple’s son can be seen in the background. “I don’t know what to do with it,” the suspect is heard saying of the boy.

Abballa then calls for more attacks in France, particularly against the Euro 2016 stadiums and a list of police officers, prison guards, and journalists he names.

He was shot dead by members of an elite police unit after negotiations failed...

And watch, at France 24, "France : policeman killer was part of Syria jihad investigation, had ties with jihadi networks," and "France police murder claimed by ISIS: 'a direct link with the Orlando mass shooting'."

Shameful Obama Panders to Antiwar Pacifism at Hiroshima, Says U.S. Bears 'Responsibility' to 'Curb Such Suffering Again...' (VIDEO)

Folks know how I feel about this. See, "Apology Tour: As Shadow of War Fades, Obama Visits Vietnam and Japan (VIDEO)."

And note that the Japanese government has no plans to reciprocate Obama's shameful kowtowing. At Politico, "Japanese PM Abe: No plans to go to Pearl Harbor."

More, at LAT, "In historic visit to Hiroshima, Obama calls on the world to morally evolve":

President Obama came face to face with the horror of nuclear war Friday in a somber visit to Hiroshima, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to tour the site of the atomic bombing 71 years ago that killed tens of thousands in an instant and ushered in the nuclear age.

In a sweeping address that reflected on the obligations of humankind, Obama wrestled with the inherent contradiction that centuries of technical advancement have both made it easier to bind people together and given them the capacity for the carnage seen in this city. And he confronted the cold reality that his own goal of a world without nuclear firepower remains frustratingly out of reach.

Speaking slowly and solemnly, a tempo that seemed intended to underline his reach for history, the president noted that as battlefield weapons and tactics evolve, accompanying norms about whether to use them advances only in fits and starts.

"Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us," Obama warned. "The scientific revolution that led to the splitting of an atom requires a moral revolution as well. That is why we come to this place."

Obama did not apologize for the nuclear attacks here and in the city of Nagasaki, strikes he believes ended the perils of Japanese aggression and brought about the end of World War II.

But, as the leader of the only country ever to have deployed nuclear weapons, Obama said it is the duty of those who hold terrible power to accept the consequences of its use.

"We have a shared responsibility to look directly into the eye of history and ask what we must do differently to curb such suffering again. Someday the voices of the hibakusha will no longer be with us to bear witness," he said, using the Japanese term for survivors of the nuclear blasts.

The Peace Memorial park he visited Friday afternoon marks the darkest days of Hiroshima, where about 350,000 Japanese civilians and military personnel were living on Aug. 6, 1945, the day the bomb fell...

More.

Shameful.

It makes me sad to be an American with this president in office. We're moral. Japan is not.

NewsBusted — President Obama Visits Hiroshima...

Via Theo Spark:

Apology Tour: As Shadow of War Fades, Obama Visits Vietnam and Japan (VIDEO)

Ralph Peters spoke for me earlier with his comments on Obama's visit to Japan, "Lt. Col. Ralph Peters Slams Obama's Upcoming Visit to Hiroshima (VIDEO)."

Just going there represents an apology. He's the president of the United States. He dignifies the far-left, pacifist (and anti-American) demands for U.S. groveling.

And to top it off, O's visiting Communist Vietnam, which adds to his whirlwind tour of Marxist-Leninist regimes.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Obama heads to Vietnam and Japan to confront the ghosts of old wars amid turmoil in modern ones":

For nearly eight years, President Obama has struggled  to end wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Next week, he’ll finally succeed in closing chapters on two other ones instead – Vietnam and World War II.

Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima and will meet with survivors of the atomic bombings that ended World War II. He will also travel to Vietnam, to whose communist government he is considering selling more weapons, a sign of how the U.S.-Vietnam relationship has blossomed in the decades since the war there ended.

For the president who promised to end two wars only to watch them persist, the end points this week in Vietnam and Japan — decades in the making — show just how hard that is, and how long peace could ultimately take.

“We’ve seen the difficulty or inability to disengage from the war on terror, including in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Bruce Klingner of the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center. “And he has seen that these U.S. commitments to protect friends and allies can be long-standing commitments, as evidenced by our continued presence in South Korea and Japan and Germany.”

Obama will pay heed to the past by promoting how far the alliances with Vietnam and Japan have come since the countries were bitter enemies of the U.S. He plans to highlight growing commercial ties in Vietnam, one of the 12 countries that are part of the massive Pacific Rim trade deal being negotiated. In Japan, where he will also meet with the heads of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, Obama's visit to Hiroshima is an opportunity to revisit his efforts toward nuclear nonproliferation.

“The very fact that the United States is traveling to Japan, that it’s now one of our closest allies in the world, and Vietnam, which is an emerging partner of ours, demonstrates how you are able to move beyond difficult history,” said White House deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes....

Obama may encounter some anti-American sentiment in Japan, where the arrest of an American suspected of killing a woman who disappeared last month has sparked outrage. Police say he's also suspected in her death but have not charged him.

On his final day in Japan, Obama will go to the city of Hiroshima, where the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb used in war in 1945. That bomb, and another dropped on Nagasaki three days later, killed at least 129,000 people and poisoned a generation with radiation.

Obama will pay tribute to the suffering and loss of war, aides say, though he won’t apologize for the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which he views as having been necessary to end the war and save the world from tyranny.

At the time, President Truman made a decision he believed was “consistent with our national security priorities,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in explaining Obama’s refusal to apologize. “He believed that lives on both sides of the conflict could be saved by dropping the bomb.”

Obama has offered a similar defense of his own decision to use armed drones in the fight against terrorists in the Middle East.

More than that, though, he has spoken admiringly of Truman’s commitment to a new post-war order in which nations of the world worked together – the very kind of shift he has sought to enable the world to fight off crisis while still taking steps toward progress.

That new order was a marriage of “idealism to hardheaded realism, an acceptance of America’s power with a humility regarding America’s ability to control events around the world,” Obama wrote in his 2006 book “The Audacity of Hope.”

But the lessons of the 20th century wars only go so far, said [former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt] Campbell. They don’t necessarily provide a clear pathway for today’s leaders...

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters Slams Obama's Upcoming Visit to Hiroshima (VIDEO)

Following-up from the other day, "Obama to Visit Hiroshima; Talk of Atomic Bomb Apology Stirs Controversy (VIDEO)."

I don't watch Fox Business Channel very much, which made me realize right now that I don't see Ralph Peters on the main Fox News network much anymore. I guess he's been relegated to the business channel after calling the president a "total pussy." Sadly, PC intolerance infects even the so-called conservatives at Rupert Murdoch's crib.

Watch:

Obama to Visit Hiroshima; Talk of Atomic Bomb Apology Stirs Controversy (VIDEO)

I swear if Obama utters even the slightest inkling of an apology I think I'll just die.

The White House denied suggestions that O would apologize, but I'm not buying it.

At USA Today, "Obama to visit Hiroshima to promote nuke-free world."

Deterioration in U.S. Race Relations

You don't say?

At Gallup, "U.S. Worries About Race Relations Reach a New High" (via Memeorandum):

My favorite part about the Obama era is all the racial healing.

— jon gabriel (@exjon) November 24, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- More than a third (35%) of Americans now say they are worried "a great deal" about race relations in the U.S. -- which is higher than at any time since Gallup first asked the question in 2001. The percentage who are worried a great deal rose seven percentage points in the past year and has more than doubled in the past two years.

Concern about race relations in the U.S. has risen during an 18-month period marked by a series of deaths of unarmed blacks at the hands of police officers. These deaths sparked major, sometimes violent, protests and fueled the nationwide rise of the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

Democrats, Liberals More Worried Than Republicans, Conservatives

Concern about race relations over the past two years has increased among Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, and blacks and whites. But the gap between the groups who were already most worried before 2015 -- Democrats, liberals and blacks -- and those less worried has not shrunk, and in some cases has widened. Of particular note is the 53% to 27% "worried" gap between blacks and whites, up from the 31% to 14% gap between blacks and whites in the 2012-2014 combined polls...

More.

Racial healing, heh.

First Quarter GDP Growth Tracking at Just 0.9 Percent

Depression economics.

Next to global Islamic appeasement, meager economic growth (due to ideology and statism) will be the key Obama legacy.

At CBNC, "Shocker cuts to Q1 growth pace show faltering economy" (via Conservative Treehouse):

First-quarter growth is now tracking at just 0.9 percent, after new data showed surprising weakness in consumer spending and a wider-than-expected trade gap.

According to the CNBC/Moody's Analytics rapid update, economists now see the sluggish growth pace based on already reported data, down from 1.4 percent last week. According to the rapid update, economists have a median forecast of 1.6 percent growth in first-quarter GDP, which includes their estimates for data not yet released.

"It's not a polar vortex winter. You can't blame the weather this year. It's the consumer. I think there's a problem with the measurement but at the end of the day if the world were as good as we'd hoped, people would feel better and it's not showing up," said Diane Swonk of DS Economics.

Personal income rose 0.2 percent in February, a tenth above expectations, and spending was up 0.1 percent. But revisions to January's spending data wiped out earlier solid gains and showed spending marginally higher — at 0.1 percent from an earlier 0.5 percent.

Fourth-quarter GDP growth was reported at 1.4 percent Friday, revised up from 1 percent.

Economists had been hopeful the first quarter would show a snapback with growth above 2 percent, and some have been optimistic that weak manufacturing was beginning to show signs of bottoming.

They note the size of the revision to consumer spending is rare.

"It's not falling off the cliff. We're not in a recession but it's consistent with worry," said Swonk...

More.

Al-Shabaab Claims Responsibility for Somalia Laptop Jet Bombing (VIDEO)

At CNN, "Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for Somalia in-flight jet blast":

(CNN) The jihadist group Al-Shabaab on Saturday claimed responsibility for a bomb blast on a Somali passenger plane this month -- an explosion that authorities say killed only the alleged bomber.

The Daallo Airlines plane, which took off from Somalia's capital bound for Djibouti on February 2, landed back in Mogadishu despite the blast, which Somali authorities say was caused by a laptop computer containing a bomb.

The bomber -- identified by authorities as Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh -- was sucked out of the airliner through a hole from the explosion.

In a statement released online, Al-Shabaab said the operation targeted "Western intelligence officials and Turkish NATO forces aboard the airplane bound for Djibouti."

The statement admitted that the bombing did not go as planned.

"While the operation did not bring down the plane as Allah had decreed, it struck terror in the hearts of the crusaders," the statement reads.

The group vowed to continue targeting "Western intelligence teams" that operate in Somalia...

Keep reading.

Thousands of Iraqi Refugees in Finland Cancel Asylum Applications and Return Home

Heh.

They don't feel welcome. And besides, it's cold up there in Finland.

Gives new meaning to a "chilly reception."

At the Telegraph UK, "Iraqi refugees in Finland returning home due to 'chilly weather and hostile locals'":

Thousands of applications for asylum have been cancelled, officials say, with Finland chartering flights to take the refugees back to Baghdad from next week.

Thousands of Iraqis who arrived in Finland last year have decided to cancel their asylum applications and return home, with some saying they dislike the frosty weather and find the locals unfriendly.

More than 4,100 applications for asylum have been cancelled, officials say, with Finland chartering flights to take the refugees back to Baghdad from next week.

Though the majority say they yearn to be reunited with their families, others are simply disillusioned with the Nordic way of life, according to a local travel agent in Helsinki.

Muhiadin Hassan, who is selling up to twenty tickets to Baghdad each day, told Reuters: "Some say they don't like the food here, it's too cold or they don't feel welcome in Finland. There are many reasons."

Finland's intake of asylum seekers rose nearly tenfold last year, after applications increased from 3,600 in 2014 to 32,500 in 2015.

Nearly 80 per cent of the returnees are Iraqis, while just 22 of the 877 Syrians who have sought asylum in Finland have asked to return home...

Surging Number of Attacks in Germany’s Migrant Centres Sees Christians, Women and Homosexuals Forced to Flee from Muslim Men

At Blazing Cat Fur.

Of course, people fleeing for their lives are the real problem. The "asylum" seekers are gentle souls, misunderstood -- no, demonized -- by the "racist" Europeans.

FBI Convinced Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik Tried to Detonate Bomb During San Bernardino Attack (VIDEO)

Reportedly Syed Farook placed a backpack full of bombs under a table during the holiday party, then left the scene and came back with Tashfeen to launch the attack.

At the Los Angeles Times, "FBI is now convinced that couple tried to detonate bomb in San Bernardino terror attack":

The FBI's top investigator in the San Bernardino terrorist attack said Friday that the husband and wife who shot and killed 14 people on Dec. 2 intended to detonate an explosive device inside the room, though the exact timetable of the plot remains unclear.

David Bowdich, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said Friday that investigators now believe that Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, attempted to detonate a pipe bomb hidden inside a bag at the Inland Regional Center.

What investigators still don't know is whether they planned to detonate the bomb first and then open fire on first responders, or to detonate the device as paramedics and police descended on the facility to tend to gunshot victims.

“Was the intent to detonate prior to their attack?” Bowdich asked. “We just don’t have the answer.”

During a news briefing last week, Bowdich said Farook brought a bag containing the pipe bomb into the facility when he arrived at 8:37 a.m. An FBI affidavit said the device was made of three galvanized steel pipes and smokeless powder and was attached to a remote-control toy car. The bomb was “armed and ready to detonate.”

Agents found a remote control for a toy car in the couple’s SUV, the affidavit said.

But this marks the first time officials have said they believe the couple attempted to detonate the device.

Farook and Malik drove around San Bernardino and Redlands between the time of the attack and their deaths in a gun battle with police hours later. In that three-hour, 42-minute window, the couple did not stray far from the facility, according to Bowdich. At one point, they even returned to Waterman Avenue and drove in the direction of the building.

A federal law enforcement source previously told The Times that it is possible the couple were unable to detonate the device because the remote was out of range. Sprinklers that went off after the shooting could have also interfered with the explosives, said the source, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about an active investigation.

Bowdich said it may be impossible for investigators to determine the couple’s exact plans for use of the bomb, as they have recovered no documents, schematics or other electronic data that reveal planning for the assault.

“And I will be quite frank. I am not sure we will ever know that answer,” he said Friday...

Keep reading.